Why Jive Software (JIVE) Stock Is Up Today

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Jive Software (JIVE) shares are up 14% to $8.55 on Thursday.

The increase follows the announcement that Cisco Sytems (CSCO) had chosen the social business platform to replace the WebEx Social service it currently provides.

"Together, we are helping our customers easily go between their real-time conversations, like instant messages, video conferences and online meetings, with the more persistent social conversations, like blogs, discussions, wikis, posts and online groups," said Cisco VP of Collaboration Solutions Management Peder Ulander.

TheStreet Ratings team rates JIVE SOFTWARE INC as a Sell with a ratings score of D-. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation:

"We rate JIVE SOFTWARE INC (JIVE) a SELL. This is driven by a few notable weaknesses, which we believe should have a greater impact than any strengths, and could make it more difficult for investors to achieve positive results compared to most of the stocks we cover. The company's weaknesses can be seen in multiple areas, such as its deteriorating net income, disappointing return on equity, weak operating cash flow, generally disappointing historical performance in the stock itself and feeble growth in its earnings per share."

Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows:

The company, on the basis of change in net income from the same quarter one year ago, has significantly underperformed when compared to that of the S&P 500 and the Software industry. The net income has significantly decreased by 43.1% when compared to the same quarter one year ago, falling from -$15.57 million to -$22.29 million.

Return on equity has greatly decreased when compared to its ROE from the same quarter one year prior. This is a signal of major weakness within the corporation. Compared to other companies in the Software industry and the overall market, JIVE SOFTWARE INC's return on equity significantly trails that of both the industry average and the S&P 500.

Net operating cash flow has significantly decreased to -$4.25 million or 164.32% when compared to the same quarter last year. In addition, when comparing to the industry average, the firm's growth rate is much lower.

Despite any intermediate fluctuations, we have only bad news to report on this stock's performance over the last year: it has tumbled by 46.90%, worse than the S&P 500's performance. Consistent with the plunge in the stock price, the company's earnings per share are down 33.33% compared to the year-earlier quarter. Naturally, the overall market trend is bound to be a significant factor. However, in one sense, the stock's sharp decline last year is a positive for future investors, making it cheaper (in proportion to its earnings over the past year) than most other stocks in its industry. But due to other concerns, we feel the stock is still not a good buy right now.

JIVE SOFTWARE INC's earnings per share declined by 33.3% in the most recent quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago. The company has reported a trend of declining earnings per share over the past two years. However, the consensus estimate suggests that this trend should reverse in the coming year. During the past fiscal year, JIVE SOFTWARE INC reported poor results of -$1.11 versus -$0.76 in the prior year. This year, the market expects an improvement in earnings (-$0.44 versus -$1.11).